[nagdu] What is "disruptive" to a business?

[Tami Jarvis]

Jenine,

Oh, guilty here. Of the finger grooming, not the rest! With my poodle, 
I"m not spreading fur, but I do need to be careful about what her hair 
picks up so I don't end up making a pile of the great outdoors. When we 
walk a distance -- or especially if we take transit -- I need to 
remember to give her a thorough brush off and pat down before we walk in 
a door. Mostly, when I'm petting her absent-mindedly, I fondle her top 
knot and ears, so those are pretty safe from debris collection. /smile/

I'll start with my conclusions: I do think in this case the restaurant 
could legally ask the dog to leave and not come back. I also think there 
is a middle ground where the manager (or whoever) could attempt a 
friendly approach to explain the problems to the handler and ask for 
better manners. I'm not going to say "should," since the dog handling is 
not their responsibility. It would be a darned awkward conversation, and 
it could go horribly wrong in a legal way. Just as easy to ban the dog 
and be done with it.

Now here's my take on the scenario and my reasons for believing the 
disruption is significant:

Okay, I'm a decent, responsible restaurant owner now, and I want to 
follow the law and do what is right. Only now I have to deal with the 
service dog team you just described. Drat! What should I do? That's a 
toughie.

Assuming I am a reasonable intelligent restaurant owner, I probably 
ought to get some video of the behavior I believe to be disruptive to my 
business in case things turn into a big round of "he said, she said." 
Pictures of the water on the floor of the aisle would be a really good 
idea, too! That's a safety concern that I *really* have to worry about. 
I have to follow regulations about that, I have health codes that may 
come into play, and I sure do not want my workers' comp rates to go up, 
nor my liability insurance because of a slip and fall. Boy howdy, I do 
not want that!

My restaurant is not a dog park or a petting zoo. People come here to 
relax and eat a good meal and enjoy themselves. Not all of them enjoy 
having a dog there in the first place, and they don't want to have it in 
the middle of everything, and they don't want to have to hear all the 
cooing over it as the center piece of their dining experience. I want 
them to come back again so I can stay in business. They probably don't 
want to come back again and won't. The customer with the dog that is 
causing this disruption is not making up for business I am probably losing.

This is disruptive and possibly expensive.

Tami

On 08/18/2013 07:41 AM, Jenine Stanley wrote:
> In this whole discussion of fake service dogs, I'm reminded that it is truly
> all about behavior. Or is it?
>
> For me personally, it's insulting that someone thinks he or she must fain
> disability, something I live with and have no choice about, to be able to
> take even a well behaved pet into places where I can take my dog, because he
> assists me. There is a strong part of me that wants to say to people who do
> this, "Good, you get the rest of the things that go along with having a
> disability, like un or under employment, often being thought of as a child
> or not equal to others, general ignorance, etc."
>
> Then I ask myself about our own community. Do we realize that our dogs too
> are under these same conduct standards?  I don't want to blame the victim at
> all here and I know that most of us try very hard to keep our dogs under
> good control.
>
> Here's an interesting situation though, and it's totally fictitious. What
> would you do if you were the business owner?
>
> A person comes into your business regularly with a legitimate service dog,
> doesn't matter what the dog does for the person, that person has the right
> gear and ID and has answered the questions you can ask legally about the
> dog.
>
> The person always gives the dog water at the table, allowing it to drink out
> in the aisle where people walk. The person makes no attempt to clean up the
> water left after the dog drinks. This makes the floor very slippery for
> everyone and the staff must clean it up.
>
> The person sits while talking and grooms the dog with his fingers, flicking
> the fur onto the floor. This makes a huge mess as it's a long-haired dog.
>
> The person allows and encourages everyone in the place to pet and play with
> the dog, taking it out of harness for this activity. As a result, other
> customers think it's OK to bring their pet dogs in and to pet other service
> dogs who come in with their people.
>
> As the business owner, this is very disruptive and we want to ban the person
> from bringing the dog in. Thoughts?
>
> Yes, our office actually got this call. I won't tell you what we said as
> that's confidential, but I'm curious to see your thoughts.
>
> I'll admit, when nervous or bored, I will do that finger grooming thing. I
> caught myself the other day and began feeling around for fur and collecting
> it into my pocket. :)
>
> Jenine Stanley
> jeninems at wowway.com
> http://www.twitter.com/jeninems
>
>
>
>
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